Intangibles and Valuation in the Age of Knowledge

Brian J Hilton

Abstract

Here we take an deductive approach rooted in the reason the firm exists Coase's (1937) then work on Williamson (1979), Hart and Grossman (1986), Tirole (1986) and Hernnart (1989) on the basis for that existence followed by most recently the role ICT plays in the process creating corporate boundaries (Holmstrom and Roberts, 1998, Antras 2011, Cantwell 2013).

In the emerging knowledge age it is highly pertinent to explore how to articulate the role of the corporation, or more generally enterprise, where knowledge is evidentially key to an enterprise's success, form, distribution of power, both within and without, and its location. Corporate ownership seems highly correlated with all these. Knowledge generation, distribution and location are not prerequisite for corporate existence but necessary artefacts of enterprise defined beyond the boundaries of ownership by any single corporation.